NME is featuring a track-by-track description of the new Strokes album, coming soon. Already, fans are on the fence about the album after the release of just one track, One Way Trigger. But the Strokes have a way of upsetting expectations--and then re-setting them again.

NME fires the first salvo:Fair warning: broadly speaking, ‘Comedown Machine’ is probably the least-like themselves The Strokes have ever sounded. That’ll be an instant red flag to anyone longing for a return to the aesthetic of the first two albums, but in the name of artistic integrity (read: their frontman’s love of keyboards) they’ve pushed forwards.

But do we want the Strokes to push forward? Keyboards? Hmm. And where is that Riviera in all of this?